Today, it was announced via Manchester United’s official Twitter account that star forward Wayne Rooney has been ruled out of this Saturday’s match against Newcastle. It’s being reported that he bruised his toe quite badly in the first leg of United’s UEFA Champions League tie against Bayern Munich. In addition to being sidelined against the Magpies, manager David Moyes has said that Rooney will be “touch and go” for the huge second-leg clash in Munich looming this week.
After United pulled a 1-1 draw out of the first Bayern match, a fair few fans expressed that they thought Moyes should rest his best players against Newcastle, since United are out of contention in the Premier League. However, it’s quite frowned upon for clubs to blatantly employ a weakened side in less important matches. In fact, doing so can result in a fine from the FA. So, it’s possible that this injury isn’t quite as serious as has been implied by Moyes. Even if Rooney has any tiny sign of being hurt, Moyes will want to keep him out of t he Newcastle game, as a precautionary measure.
When talking about the injury, Moyes made some interesting comments. He said that “There is not an awful lot you can do with a toe injury. Sometimes you can feel better quite quickly with them and sometimes you need an injection possibly to play with it if it is bruising.” To me, it seems as though there’s a good chance the former will be true. Indeed, Moyes may also be playing mind games with Bayern. Surely the German club will have scouts keeping an eye on United. Not knowing whether their opponent will have their best player available will be very detrimental to their preparations for the match.
This theory of David Moyes’s clever tactics is, in a way, supported by an excerpt from Rooney’s book. It’s a story from the Sir Alex Ferguson days, when United were (ironically) preparing for a Champions League second leg tie with Bayern in Munich. Rooney mentions that Fergie told him to leave a protective boot on his foot when leaving the training ground, so he would “give Bayern’s scouts the impression that [he’s] crocked for the return game.” So, is man annointed by Ferguson himself taking a leaf from his predecessor’s book? It will definitely be hard for Pep Guardiola and his staff to pick a lineup without knowing whether Rooney will be playing against them.
There is, obviously, the possibility that Rooney really is hurt. And that would be an enormous blow to Man United. However, something about this bruised toe doesn’t seem quite right to me. As I said, Wayne Rooney is Manchester United’s best player. Or, at least, the best one they have available, if you prefer to give that title to Robin van Persie. It’s hard to imagine that Rooney will sit out his club’s most important game of the season because of a bruised toe. Unless he’s absolutely unable to play, he’ll probably be on the pitch at the Allianz Arena.
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